The present invention relates in general to methods of protecting musical instrument strings, and more particularly to using a non-toxic chemical preservative treatment or coating applied to musical instrument strings.
A musical instrument string typically comprises a core of material and optionally additional strands of the same or other material wound around the core. The composition and dimensions of the core and the optional windings are chosen so as to produce the desired tones when the string is caused to vibrate.
There are a number of different types of musical strings employed today, and examples of such strings are guitar, violin, cello, bass, banjo, piano, and harp strings. A large variety of such strings require human contact along at least a portion of the strings, such as in the fingering and plucking of guitar strings in order to be played.
While straight (non-wound) gage strings can be easily wiped of dirt and oil after use, wound strings tend to become contaminated with dirt, skin oils, and perspiration after even a few hours of playing. When dirt and other contaminants infiltrate the windings of the string, the string's characteristics and characteristics of the sounds they produce are altered.
After a relatively short period of time, a typical wound string will become musically “dead” due to the build-up of this contamination. Presently, wound strings that lose their tonal qualities must be removed from the instrument and either cleaned or replaced. This process is burdensome, time consuming, and expensive for musicians who play frequently and require high tonal quality. This problem can be resolved if the strings are coated with a substance to avoid contamination of the wound string windings and/or to provide some cushioning or smooth cover for the strings.
Several methods and treatments for protecting natural characteristics of the strings are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,494 to Reno discloses an elongated clip configurated shield designed to encase the strings of a musical instrument. The shield is formed of a flexible plastic material and a cloth lining adhered within. The cloth lining is impregnated with a rust and moisture inhibitor chemical. However, the method of protecting the string by using the shield is different from the chemical preservative treatment of the present invention, which is directly applied to the strings of a musical instrument.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,228 to Lazarus deals with extending the life of musical instrument strings through the application of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) in an oil lubricant medium. U.S. Pat. No. 6,528,709 to Hebestreit discloses an improved musical instrument string wherein the string includes a layer of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) that protects the string from contamination. However, the disadvantage of the above two inventions is that they employ a chemical such as PTFE or ePTFE that possess higher surface energy values and/or produce a surface coating thickness of more than 1 micron. The main problem associated with the coating thickness, particularly in the case of PTFE is that it tends to “deaden the sound”. The non-toxic chemical utilized in the present invention differs from these chemicals.
U.S. Pub. No. 20030183061 to Van Pamel discloses a hydrophobic polymer treatment for strings. A hydrophobic polymer is adhesively coated on the surfaces of the wound string within its interstitial voids, while the exterior surfaces remain uncoated. The polymer is applied by soaking the string in a liquid polymeric solution to flow the solution into the interstitial voids. The string is removed from the bath and the residual solution is removed from the exterior surface of the string using a resilient scraper. Suitable hydrophobic polymers that have low surface energies, low biomolecular absorption, shed organic solvents, and low resultant surface coating thickness of around 1 micron can be used. Although treatment with the hydrophobic polymers results in low surface energy and coating thickness, the chemical composition of the present invention is different in that it includes a fluorochemical acrylate polymer coating carried in a hydrofluoroether solvent.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a lower surface energy value than PTFE or ePTFE and maintain the integrity of the sound produced by the strings by using the fluorochemical acrylate polymer coating carried in the hydrofluoroether solvent. Other objects of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the appended Summary, Description, and Claims.